[Race spirit]
Today, was my second time rowing for the PAYM Central Youth Council.

It's not the different crew that makes the difference nor the number of crew - it's a 10-men boat again. But the difference is that it's the first time I'm rowing on my birthday. Not that I don't usually spend my birthday celebrating.

My birthday falls on 4 November. Since my schooling days, this is usually the hot period for exams so sometimes I have to really just skip celebrating it altogether. Like in one year I had to go to the Zaobao office for an interview after having lunch with my family.



But the day started on a lovely note. The sky was lovely, that is.



Our heats was the second race of the day. And we did really badly. One of the reasons is because given the nature of the committee (mostly chairmen), we don't really have the time to train. We came in last at a timing of 2:14. But like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, two teams in the earlier heats were disqualified. This allowed us to advance to the grand finals at a timing of 2:14.

Perhaps, this can be attributed to the "never give up spirit". Even though we were last and lagging by more that two boat lengths, we continued and persevered and gave our best.

Tingwei says if only I can apply this to my schoolwork.

In the end, we made it to the fourth placing (again!) this time. Hopefully, things will get better next year.

Apart from all that, there's something more interesting. You have seen a 20-men boat, a 10-men boat but have you seen a 5-men boat? It was my first time seeing that.



And I think 5-men boats are really cute and cool at the same time. They are very versatile too - one went out of course even.



Well, after my race, I stayed on to support the TP dragonboaters. It's been a long time and you see the old faces and even more new faces.



Although I had to rush to school during the break for a meeting, I guess it has been one of the best birthdays ever - being close with my family and friends. And that is how I wish life could be instead of the back-stabbing and stepping on each other. But, well, that is a different game altogether.